


Blood and Soul

by DerMottenmann



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:15:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26408593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerMottenmann/pseuds/DerMottenmann
Summary: When one day a baby that is supposed to be Jason Todd's daughter is left behind at the door of Wayne manor, it becomes clear that Jason didn't tell the batfamily everything that happened to him. While Batman trys to figure out what happened during the time he thought his second adopted son was dead, Jason struggles to raise a child and beeing an Outlaw at the same time. And when the Untitled rise again, Jason needs all the help he can get.
Relationships: Artemis of Bana-Mighdall & Bizarro (DCU) & Jason Todd, Bizarro (DCU) & Jason Todd, Essence (DCU)/Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	1. The calm before the storm.

It was a stormy night in Gotham City. Lightnings struck from the sky and made enough light to see two women making their way to a manor at the edge of a cliff. One of the females was nearly double as bright at the other and seemed to be floating. Her grey heir covered her old face. The other person was girl, from her looks maybe in her early to mid-twenties with bright white hair. On her back was a scarlet red blade, reflecting the light from lightnings. As they made their way to the door, the older one could be heard: „I know your sad daughter, but she will be safer here.” The younger one nods, but then asks: “Have you seen this? Have you seen this future?” The other woman sighs before she answers: “No, not at all. I saw only death and pain, but never a child. How this happened is beyond my understanding.” The girl nods again. “Why are we delivering her here? Our sources said he doesn’t come here often.” “We can’t bring her to his current hideout. But don’t worry, he will come as soon as he hears.” The two arrive at the door. Then the younger one pulls her hands out and in dust of smoke and tiny basket appears in her hand. She carefully puts it down in front of the door swell. “I was hoping I could speak to him again and apologize.” The older one is quiet for a moment before she asks: “Do you still love him?” The girl only nods. Then the elderly woman says: “Come with me daughter, and when everything goes right, you’ll be reunited again.” With that she presses the doorbell, but before anybody can open it, she and the other girl disappear in a pile of smoke. Then the door opens and a butler looks out. “Hello, may I ask who there is at this late ho…” As he sees the basket with a tied-up letter to he goes quiet mid-sentence. Slowly he unknots the piece of paper and opens it. A lightning struck again and made enough light to see what was on the paper:

Dear Jason,  
It’s been a while since we last saw. If I remember right, we tried to kill each other. If you read this you probably ask yourself who the baby is. Well, its yours. I know, now you think: “That’s impossible, we saw each other last years ago.” I can’t explain you this in here, in case this letter is seen by someone we can’t trust, but belief me it’s your child. An unspoken evil rise, and I can’t risk her life, which is why I’m sending her to you. I know you can protect and raise her. I hope you can forgive me one day for the mistakes I made.  
In regrets, E.

Jason ducked under the bullets send his way, but he wasn’t fast enough. One bullet hit him in the shoulder, but thanks to his additional armour the damage wasn’t critical. Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a bitch. Jason hit one of the three henchmen in the stomach which made him drop his rifle. In a blink of an eye the other two where down as well. With a grin he took his helmet of and sat down as he waited. 5 seconds later two man were thrown through a window on his right. As he looked up, he could she his amazon teammate with her giant axe approaching him. “Easy Red, you could break their spines accidently.” He commented, which earned him a laughter from her. “And why would the big bad Hood care about them?” “I’m not THAT bad, am I?” She rolled her eyes before she said: “No, you’re the worst.” “Red Her am funny.” They both turned around only to see the bulking mass of Bizarro closing in. In his right hand where another three unconcise henchmen. “Hey there Big Guy, had fun?” Jason asked. Bizarro dropped down next to them before stating: “Me like hurting bad guys.” Artemis looked at both of them before saying: “Really Jason? Did you teach him that line? “Oh no, I would never.” Before Artemis could say something, Jason’s phone vibrated. Without asking he started the call. “What is old man?” The voice of Bruce Wayne answered him: “Come to the manor. There was a change of events you should know about.” With that he ended the call. “Asshole!” Jason whispered to himself. “Who was that, little one?” Jason responded immediately: “My ‘dad’. He wants me to come to the manor. Ar, can you bring Biz home?” “Of course. When will you be back?” Jason laughed: “By the lengths of his meetings? Probably tomorrow.” “Alright, see you little one.” With that she turned back to Bizarro. Jason smiled as he pulled out his grappling hook and put his phone in his pocket. He loved his tiny family.   
As he grappled from house to house, he asked himself what could have happened. Surly it couldn’t be that bad, otherwise it would be a league matter. No, this must be something in the family. Maybe Dick had gotten Barbara pregnant? No, then it would be Dick who would have called him. Maybe Someone got hurt?   
As he arrived at the alley, he parked his motorcycle in he had come to the conclusion that whatever it was, it was rather a good than a bad thing. The entire ride he was asking himself what he could get Artemis as a birthday present and when he finally arrived at the manor, he had decided that a picture of him, Bizarro and her in an expensive frame would be perfect, because what else could he give her other than good memories. As he slowly walked towards the manor, he could almost imagine Artemis look on her face when he and Biz would surprise her. As he arrived at the front door, he rang the bell and a short time after, Alfred the butler opened the door. “Master Jason, a pleasure to see you. The others are waiting.” “Thanks, Al.” Jason responded as he made his way to the living room. When he entered, he could see that all of his siblings where there. “Oh, there you are Jaybird, took you long enough.” Dick greeted him, “Do you have any idea what this is about?” “No, Bruce called me and said something about major events.” Jason responded. As Dick wanted to say something Bruce entered the living room. Everyone looked at him. “Why is the entire family here, Father?” Damian asked. Bruce seemed nervous, like he didn’t know where to begin with. “Come on, spill it out already.” Stephanie said. “We have a new member in this family.” Everyone looked at each other before Dick said: “Did you seriously adopt another orphan?” “No. Alfred would you please?” Alfred nodded and then walked out of the living room. A minute later he came back with a baby in his arm. Everyone gasped. Tim was the first to recover and said: “So, who’s the mother? I bet it’s Selina.” Damian stood up and shouted: “Was I not enough for you, Father? Is that why you needed a new child?” Dick stood up to and exclaimed: “Bruce seriously You got to tell us that Selina was pregnant.” “Yeah right, we trusted you.” Stephanie said. “I am not the father!” Bruce yelled which mad everyone shut up. Then like moth drawn to light everyone looked at Dick. He seemed to be very uncomfortable. “And no, Dick isn’t the father either.” “Then who’s is it then?” Jason asked. “It’s yours.” And then many tings happened very fast. Dick made sounds like he would choke, Tim looked like he had seen a Ghost, Stephanie and Barbara just looked at each other, Damian made a face that no one had ever seen him doing and Cass lunged at Jason and hugged him. Jason slowly said. “Who is the mother?” “We don’t know, the baby was delivered yesterday night at our doorstep, but there was a letter on top of her basket.” Carefully Alfred handed Jason a letter. “Can you read … out loud?” Cass asked. Jason slowly nodded before opening the letter.  
“Dear Jason, it’s been a while since we last saw. If I remember right, we tried to kill each other. If you read this you probably ask yourself who the baby is. Well, it’s yours. I know, now you think: “That’s impossible, we saw each other last years ago.” I can’t explain you this in here, in case this letter is seen by someone we can’t trust, but belief me it’s your child. An unspoken evil rise, and I can’t risk her life, which is why I’m sending her to you. I know you can protect and raise her. I hope you can forgive me one day for the mistakes I made. In regrets, E.”  
“Who is E?” Tim asked. “Yeah, right I would like to know what Girl would like to have a relationship with you, Todd.” Damian said. Everyone looked at Jason, who clearly knew who E was, judging by the colour on his face. “Who is E, Jason?” Bruce asked. Jason thought a moment before saying: “A girl I once knew. We had a little argument at the end of our relationship. Now, if no one minds, I would like to hold my daughter. Since there was no name in the letter, I guess she hasn’t one yet. I need to think about somethings, so please don’t disturb me.” He got up and took the baby carefully from Alfred and then made his way out of the living room. The people left all looked at each other. “Am I the only one, or did Jason was very vague about E?” Tim asked. Everyone nodded except Dick, who seemed to suffer his own Crisis. “My little Wing had babies before me. I always wanted to talk about this with him and mock him, and now he has a kid before me.” “Bruce? Bruce?” Tim asked. “What Tim?” “What are you thinking?” Bruce thought for a second before he said: “I think Jason didn’t tell us the truth. Jason does not trust anybody easily, and if he had a long-time relationship with someone, we would have known. No, he must have known this Girl before he knew we were alive. He still didn’t tell us everything that happened during that time. All we know, is that he has been trained by someone. In the letter was said that Jason needs to believe that this was his kid, so it wasn’t obviously wanted.” “So, what are we going to?” Tim asked. “We are going to find out what happened during Jason’s lost days.”  
While his family sat downstairs and asked themselves what to do now, the same question was inside of Jason’s head. Of course, he knew who E was. But he still couldn’t believe how that was possible. While he sat in his old room, his daughter holding in his hands, he realized the small purple tattoos above her eyes. Just another prove that Essence was the mother. He sighed before asking the baby: “Now, let’s give you a name.” The baby looked at him with interest, while he thought of possible names for her. “How about Sheila?” the baby looked at him with big round eyes and said, surprisingly, nothing. “No? Ok. Then how about Donna?” Still no reaction. “And how about Iosefka?” This time the baby seemed to smile and wagged his hands. “Iosefka it is then.” While the baby seemed amused, Jason thought about Essence again. She would have liked the name for sure. It was a character of one of her books. He wondered where she was now. His Ex must have been really afraid of this ‘unspoken evil’. Then Jason thought about his current families, as well the Outlaws as the Bat family. He needed to decide in which he would raise her. But before even really considering the thought he had already chosen. Artemis as Mom, he as Dad and Biz as big brother, with aunt Kori and uncle Roy. He almost smiled at the picture. Maybe aunt Cass could sometimes come by. It was no secret that Cass and Jason preferred each other before there other siblings. As he made his way back to the living room he got overwhelmed with a feeling of pride. He could be a good father; he could do what his parents couldn’t. With that though he opened the door to the living room. “Everyone may I present, Iosefka Todd.”


	2. Shifting tides

Artemis was many things. She was a warrior, a princess (even though she didn’t like it), an amazon, a survivor, and an Outlaw. She could tear down entire walls and break every bone in a body in just a second. She fought, she lost, she cried, she mourned and she hoped. She had a six-foot-tall ax at her command for crying out loud.

And yet, for everything she had seen before, she was so shocked to see Jason with a baby in her arm, that she downright lost it for a moment. With a loud crunch, she let herself fall onto a nearby couch, breaking it through the middle. Cursing she stood up. “Jason Peter Todd, you better have a good explanation.” Jason seemed to be nervous for a moment, probably because a shocked and pissed off amazon stood before him, but then he spoke freely: “Artemis, I present you, Iosefka Todd.” “YOU'RE WHAT?” Artemis needed to sit somewhere to take the news. Because the couch was broken there was only an old chair. Well, it had to do for now. “So, let me get this straight, you, the most hot-headed, careless and rebellious person I know, have a daughter and you didn’t think it would be wise to inform me that you’re dating someone and got her knocked up?” “I’m not dating someone Ar. This girl was sat out at the manor and there was a letter that said that I am the father.

Artemis felt her rage flowing away and then decided to ask: “Do you know who the mother is?” He nodded and drew a pencil and a piece of paper. He wrote: I have a tracker. The mother is Essence, my ex. But the bats don’t need to know. He passed the pencil to her and she wrote: Why? He took the pencil again. It happened during my lost days. Now she understood. Jason’s lost days. His biggest regrets. She was one of two persons he had told the story. Raising her voice, she asked: “So, why did you brought her here? I may not be an expert, but shouldn’t a child be in a more comfortable place?” 

“That’s the point, Red. I would like to raise her with you and Bizarro. You two and Kori and Roy are the most important people in my life. And I think we could handle a little girl in our messed-up family.” Artemis needed to proceed that. Not once, not even in her dreams, she thought about raising a child. “Jason, I don’t think this is such a great idea. I feel honored that you considered me to help you raise a child, but I don’t think this ‘family’ is good enough for that.” Jason laughed before he said: “And why is that? I think she would love her crazy uncle Roy, her amazing aunt Kori, her other uncle Bizarro with a heart of gold, and of course, her mother figure, the great, strong, and heroic Artemis. Oh yeah, and she would love her cousin Lian.” “You really think that highly of me little one?” The smile he gave her was answer enough. Then he pulled out his phone. “Who are you calling?” she asked. “Some friends.”

Roy Harper’s life was perfect at the moment. He sat at a beach at Madagascar and looked over his daughter and girlfriend while slurping a cocktail. The sun fell on his well-trained body and made him feel even more comfortable. While looking at his daughter as she built a sandcastle, he thought about how he deserved all of this. A healthy daughter, given to him from one of the world’s best assassins, a superhot alien girlfriend, and enough money to never need to work again. Yeah, everything was nearly perfect. If his best buddy Jason would be here, it would be complete. Speaking of the devil, his phone wrong. With one hand he put down the cocktail while the other accepted the call. 

“Jaybird Buddy, why you calling?” “He could hear the snicker over the phone. “Do you remember the joke you made about you and Batman having a child with a sexy assassin?” “Of course, but you said you hated it.” “Well, now you can make the joke about me too.” Roy fell out of his deckchair what earned him a chuckle from Kori. “YOU WHAT?” “Remember Essence? Well, last night she dropped a baby in front of my old man’s door with a letter that said I was the father.” “And what should I do now Jaybird?” “How about you move your ass over here and bring Kori and Lian with you?” “Ok, ok, geez but you need to give me at least a name.” “Iosefka. Sorry Bud, but I need to get off the phone, don’t want Daddy-Bats knowing all of my private stuff.” “Ok bro, see ya.”

Roy put the phone back in his pocket. “Who was that?” Roy nearly jumped. He hadn’t heard his girlfriend sneaking upon him. “Jesus, Kori don’t scare me like that or you’ll have to raise Lian alone.” “Who wants to raise me alone?” he turned around to see Lian sitting on the sand. Roy smiled: “No one wants to raise you alone, or are daddy and mommy not enough anymore?” The little girl blushed. “But I have a surprise for you, sunshine.” Lian peaked up. “Remember when you wanted a sibling?” “Do I get one?” she asked hopefully. “Well, not a sibling exactly but a cousin.” The smile on Lian’s face was the most beautiful thing Roy had ever seen. He swore to himself to surprise Lian more often.  
“Oh, did Jason finally impregnated Artemis?” Roy couldn’t resist. He laughed like he rarely did before. “No, no he didn’t. Last night a baby that is supposed to be his daughter was dropped off the door swell of his dads’ home.” Kori smiled brightly. “Well, what are we waiting for? Come, Lian, let’s visit your cousin.” ‘Damn,’ Roy thought to himself ‘family is the best.

Jason was Cassandra’s favorite sibling for many reasons. For once he taught her how to speak, read, and write. Second, he was always there for her. Third, before she met Steph, he was the only one of her brothers who seemed to be actually interested in her instead of her skills. Another reason she liked him was that he learned sign language extra for her. So, when Bruce said that the girl was Jason’s daughter, she knew exactly how Jason felt. She could read it from his body. He was stressed and couldn’t believe it. Back then she felt he might need some help. 

Which is why she stood now at Ma Gunn’s Home for Wayward Boys aka the secret headquarters of the Outlaws. As she knocked on the door it opened, just to reveal Artemis standing before her. Cassandra had never actually met her, but from what she knew, she was a formidable person, who worked under the disguise of being just a more brutal version of Wonder Woman.

As Cassandra studied her body, she realized brutal strength, but the clam way her hands were hanging around signalized her that she wasn’t hostile. Also, the veins on her neck were barley visible, another sign of no violence coming from her.

They both stared at each other for a while before Jason stepped next to Artemis and said: “Oh, hey Cass, nice to see you. We were just cleaning, so I hope you don’t mind all the dust around here. Iosefka is currently in Bizarro’s care if you want to see her.” Cassandra nodded. As she entered, she knew what Jason meant. Dust was everywhere, where furniture’s had been moved. The walls we already painted, which made the rest seem less ran off. 

“What … you doing?” Cassandra asked. Jason responded while carrying a desk: “As I said, were cleaning up. We thought it would be nice to make this more liveable.” Cassandra's curiosity was sparked. She had never seen how houses were built or, in this case, renovated. Granted, she had only been trained to kill the first years of her life. “May I … help?” she asked. Jason gave her a smile. “Of course, how about you paint the wall there.” With a grin, she began to work.

Someone could argue he was too paranoid. But then again, it was his job to be paranoid. As one of the three most important crimefighters in the world, and the one with no powers, it was his job to have advantages others don’t have. And you only got these advantages if you were paranoid enough to realize them. And when his son got a letter from a woman named E that told him he was a father and Jason just swept her under the rock, Bruce’s paranoid instincts all hit twelve. 

And this was the reason he was now here, on the bridge of the Watchtower, together with Clark Kent aka Superman, and Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman, standing before a desk of screens. On every single one of them could be read: Brother Eye.

“You said this was an emergency Bruce, so tell me where is the problem?” The problem is with Jason.” Diana and Clark looked at each other before Clark asked: “Did he…?” “No, he didn’t. I should have been more specific. The problem is with Jason and his daughter.” Again, Diana and Clark shared a look before Diana asked: “Since when does Jason have a daughter?” “Since before two days a baby with a letter that told him he was a father appeared before my door,” Bruce answered.

Then Clark took the word: “I understand that this concerns you, but I don’t understand how this is an emergency.” “It became an emergency when Jason saw who sent the letter, at the end of the letter stood only the letter E, and began to doge any questions we asked him. He told us that she was his ex, but I think there is more to it. Since Jason doesn’t trust anybody easily this relationship must have gone quite a while, and this means it could only have been in the days we all thought he was still dead. And we don’t know enough from his time during these days. We only know he has been trained by someone. I want to figure out what happened during his lost days.”

“Bruce,” Diana said, “I think this is a little too private, even for you. What if he really loved that woman and just dodges the questions out of embarrassment? I have seen what love can do, especially to young hearted fools.” “I must agree with Diana, Bruce. I know you are a detective, but somethings are not meant to be heard. I know better than to stop you, but I warn you, maybe you might not like what you find.” Clark said.

“Fine, but can you at least give me any information that could be helpful?” Batman asked. “He once told me that his Soul is his greatest weapon. I don’t know if that helps you, but that’s the only thing I remember.” Diana trough in. “Thanks, both of you.” “Bruce, just remember don’t do something you’ll regret later,” Clark said. And with that, he and Diana left the bridge.

Batman stood there for a moment before starting to give instructions to brother eye: “Brother eye, I want you to recall all information you can find on weapons with a connection to the owner's soul. I don’t care if article or rumor, if you can find anything related to for what I asked you please show it to me.” With that brother eye began to search trough the internet. An hour later Bruce slowly began to believe that he wouldn’t find anything, but then the brother eye showed him something that piqued his curiosity. In a book about old legends was a page that showed the so call ‘All-Blades’, a weapon that drew its strength out of the soul of the user. Bruce instantly knew he was on the right track. Sadly, the myth didn’t show him where to find the blades, but from what Bruce could understand, it had to be somewhere in the Himalayas. He would start searching there.


	3. Family matters

Training. Training was the answer to everything. You needed to get better at something? Train. You needed to have a break from everything? Train. You needed to get your mind of things? Train. And Essence did train. She trained since she was a child, and was nearly perfect at every Technik the All-Cast taught her. But nearly perfect wasn’t enough.  
And that was the reason why she now stood in a yard, surrounded with ten of the All-Castes best warriors. The task was simple: Defeat everyone in a time of 30 seconds. 10 feet above her, an elderly woman shouted: “Begin!” Under normal circumstances, Essence would have waited for one of her opponents to make the first move, but given her little time, she could only go in the offensive. She lunged at one of the warriors. She was fast enough to knock him out before another one closed in on her. She caught his arm easily and twisted it in an angle that made it unusable for the next few weeks. But before any of her opponents could use the opening, she gave them, she had already defeated another one. Then with one hand she drew the blood-blade and summoned the souls within it. Careful not to kill any of the warriors she made a complicated spinning flip and unleashed the power held within the cursed sword. Seven red dragon spirits rushed out of the blade and to her opponents. Six of them connected, knocking the victims out cold, but one of the warriors disappeared in a pile of smoke and reappeared before her. Essence had to little time to react and got caught between one of his hands. Her opponent began to choke her and she slowly began to see black dots, before she remembered a training session years ago:  
“In the end, it does only matter who wins. Honour, my ass. If you want to survive you gotta fight dirty sometimes.” Jason said. “That’s rich coming from someone like you.” Essence responded with a smile. “Well princess, if you can defeat the Untitled by kicking them in the balls, that is exactly what I will do.” They both shared a laugh, before continuing the training.  
Essence remembered all of this in a flash and knew what to do instantly. With one leg she kicked her opponent in his comfort zone so hard, that she could hear the air escape his mouth. The man dropped on one knee, grunting in pain.  
“Enough!” Ducra’s voice could be heard over the entire yard. “27 seconds. Well done. While the technic was highly uncivilized, it served her purpose. You may rest now, daughter.” Essence wasn’t really tired but decided that a little break couldn’t hurt. She put the blood-blade away and began her walk.   
1 mile away, in a tiny little room, Ducra prepared herself. Looking in the future was painful and exhausting. She had trained years before she mastered it. But now, in her old age, she sometimes struggled with it. As the fog slowly appeared and her vision became blurry, she whispered: “Show me the future.”  
The first thing she realized was that she was in a tiny room. But there, at the fireplace he kneaded, reading letters. He looked like he was in a good condition. His black hair cowered his face. Ducra walked over to him. She looked over his shoulder and tried to read the letter, but could only make out the name at the bottom: Willis Todd.  
Then the fog appeared again. The next thing she saw shocked her: Jason kneaded in the rain, his Red Hood attire on, next to an empty coffin. He screamed out of his lung: “I DON’T CARE.” She could hear a quiet voice from somewhere: “I don’t know who or what you were expecting to find, son … But it looks like it ripped your heart out.”   
As she felt the fog drifting her to the next scenario, she still tried to proceed what she just had witnessed. But what she just saw was nothing compared to what she saw next: Jason was completely broken; his helmet was shattered and someone had ripped off the symbol on his chest. From behind her, she could hear a deep voice. “No more jokes, no more Red Hood.”  
But before Ducra could who had done this to Jason she felt a pain in her side. Ducra slowly began to slip out of the dream and the last thing she heard was a woman saying: “The mask has changed, but the man is still the same.”

It was night when Dick heard someone knocking. As he got up to open his door, he wondered who it could be. He didn’t get visited very often. Granted his entire family lived in Gotham, so it was somewhat understandable. That was why his jaw nearly dropped when he saw Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, and, behind all of them, Barbara Gordon in her wheelchair before him. “I guess it has something to do with Jason?” “You could say that,” Tim answered. “Can we come in?”   
Dick nodded before he stepped to the side to let his visitors in. As soon as they entered, they made their way to his living room. Damian got down on a chair while Tim and Stephanie shared the couch. Tim immediately came to the point: “We want to figure out who E is. Jason obviously doesn’t want us to know who she is, so we need to figure this out ourselves.” Suddenly Dick realized something. “So, this is why you didn’t bring Cass with you?” This time Steph answered: “Yes. We all know she’s bestie with Jason and she would only tell us to stop invading his private life.”  
That made sense. Cass was very protective when it came to Jason. “Ok, I’m all ears,” Dick said. “Well, first Bruce already put a tracker on him. I hacked the tracker so that it also shows us his position. I propose we wait until he goes somewhere out of Gotham and then follow him.” Dick nodded but then asked: “But don’t we have any other clues?” “And this is where phase 2 starts. We need to look over Jason’s body if he still has the genetic material of her. Even if they are years old, there is always something.” “And how are we supposed to get these samples, Drake? I doubt that he will agree to just give them to you.”   
“Not necessary.” Everyone turned around to Barbara. “I think I should have enough samples saved in the computer of the clocktower. If this isn’t enough, we can still ask him if he can give us some because of medical reasons. I think I even can call up this information from here.” “You’re the best Bab.s” Dick said. “I know.”  
After 10 minutes Barbara had successfully downloaded the data. As everyone closed in to look at the results, Barbara smiled. “I see some genetic material from everyone of us, some of Roy, Kori, Bizarro, and Artemis. But there are some samples that are deeper than others, which means they are older. And these samples are deep enough to fit. From what I can tell, the woman we are searching for has white her and tan skin. But I already checked these with any samples in the possession of the government, and sadly there are none like these.”   
“Ok, but that’s a start. White hair… maybe Rose? It would make sense considering she is Deathstroke’s daughter.” “Good idea, but no. I have samples from Rose, and they are not compatible. “Maybe Roy knows something, you know he is like Jason’s best friend,” Dick said.   
Suddenly, Tim’s phone blinked, and as he looked at the screen he grinned. “I think I know where to start looking.” Bruce just used Brother Eye to recall any information regarding Soul weapons. He left one page open and if I understood it right, we need to go to the Himalayas.”  
Everyone looked at him before Damian said: “We can’t all go there. Father would be suspicious if I just left, the same for Drake and Gordon can’t obviously go there, which just leaves you and Brown.” “Well Steph,” Dick said, “we better start packing.”  
“Hey little one, is she sleeping?” Jason nodded. It had taken him some time to put Iosefka to bed, but now she was lying peacefully on her mattress. The repairs of the entrance lobby were longer than expected. In the end, he, Cassandra, and Artemis shared a drink and when Jason got up to check on Bizarro and Iosefka, he was greeted with one of the most adorable sights he’d ever seen. The Superman-Clone carefully had put her on the carped and tried to read a story. When Jason told him that he could get a break he said goodbye to ‘Little-Her’, his new nickname for Iosefka.   
“You’ll be a good father. I can see it in your eyes.” “Thanks, Ar. It means much to me.” They stood a minute in awkward silence before the old owner of the Wayward Home, Faye Gunn, stepped to him. “Jason, my boy, I need you to come with me.” Jason raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask questions.   
As he walked through the floors, Faye said: “I need to confess something to you. It’s about your father.” Jason stiffened up. His father was a wound spot or him. “What about him?” Faye seemed nervous, but then answered: I… I need to give you something.” With that, she opened the door to her office. As Jason walked in, he could feel the dusty air on his Skin. Faye got over to her desk and picked up a small packet. “I think I should have given you this sooner.” With that, she gave him the packet and walked through the door. Jason looked at the bundle.   
He made his way to the fireplace. He kneaded down and opened the package. A letter fell in front of him. Without giving it a second thought, he opened it.   
Dear Jason,  
If you read this, I’m either dead or with you again. I know I did many things wrong. I was a bad dad and I should have known better. So where do I start? Oh yeah, right, the day you were born. I swear it was the happiest moment of my godforsaken life. When your Mom gave birth to you, I promised, that one day, you’ll be a goddamn prince of Gotham. Well, we saw how that turned out. I and your mother didn’t make it any easier for you. I know I should have been there for you. I am currently writing this out of prison. They gave me this one chance. I let them try experiments on me. Its either death or you. I hope, maybe you can forgive me one day.  
Love you,   
Dad

Jason’s eyes filled with tears. He stood still form minutes before he made a decision. No. He wouldn’t chase after his dad. He had his chance. As he looked at a picture of him, Roy and Kori on the other side of the room he got the confidence to get up. He already had a family, and nothing would change that.


	4. Shadow of Doom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so you might ask why the f*ck were I gone so long? Well, school just started and the to say my start was terrible would be an understatement. I already had three exams, and there will even be more. I want to continue this story, really, but I fear school might be more important right now. I will however try to continue, but please don't be disappointed when you don't hear from this story very often. In a month to two, I will have a break and I will try to write as much as possible then.
> 
> I hope you can understand, your Mothman

Cass thought that Jason did pretty well as a father. He was still reckless, but he always came home to care about Iosefka. She understood that Jason wanted to be there for his daughter, but also be an outlaw. Since she had the ability to read body language, she could see that he was happy. She giggled a bit, as she imagined Jason, having serious Father-Daughter-Talks when the child would reach puberty.

She was so lost in thoughts, that she didn’t realize the six hooded figures that stood before the window. Each of them looked at least over sixty. The truth was, they were over sixty, but nowhere close seventy. They were centuries old in fact. They had many names. Most of them couldn’t even be spoken. 

They called themselves the Untitled. They were evil in person. They were many. They could easily kill hundreds of humans. And even though they were that powerful, they needed to hide like vermin. But soon, they wouldn’t need to crawl in the mud anymore. The defenders of earth had fallen.  
A few months ago, that victory would have meant nothing. Because even though the protectors had fallen, the chosen one still lived. His spirit was free of any burden, and he fought like a god. But now, the chosen one had something that lasted on his soul. He had an heir. If they managed to get his heir, they could break his spirit. It would be difficult, but they would win. It was foretold.

She wasn’t dead. She was close, but she wasn’t dead. Essence slowly opened one eye. Then the other. As she looked around, she didn’t realize the place. But she could have sworn she had been here before. It rained. It was annoying, but she had learned to deal with annoying, ever since she met Jason. She was laying on stone. She slowly turned her head around to see if she could get any more hints of where she was.

She looked up at a door. The door was old, but still in good form. For a door. She looked up if she could find even more clues. She froze as she read the name atop of the mailbox. Wayne Manor. The last thing she saw was the door opening before she slipped into unconsciousness.

\\\Essence did her usual morning training. She half ran, half jogged around the fountain of youth, and then began with her usual hundred push-ups. It had been only a few weeks after she was released from the blood blade, and she had to get back to her old physical performance. As she reached eighty-nine, a pain shot from between her legs to her chest, unlike anything else she had ever felt before. She collapsed and gasped in surprise. She had a very high level of resisting pain, but to every pain, you needed to get used to. Suddenly she bent over and vomited on the ground.

“Ok, what the hell is wrong with me.” She asked herself. Maybe she had caught a rare disease, but then why the pain in her comfort zone? That didn’t make any sense. And so, she decided to visit her mother and ask her.  
As she entered Ducra’s quarter, she saw the old woman meditating. She knew it would be respectless to just shake her out, but she hadn’t the patience to wait and possibly vomit again as she closed, her mother stood up by herself and turned around to see her child. “What is it, that you interrupt me meditating?”

Essence felt slightly uncomfortable, but asked anyway: “Mother, do we have some rare diseases here, that I don’t know about?” “Not to my knowledge, is something wrong?” Yes.” Essence didn’t feel embarrassed to admit her accident. “I’ve been plagued with a to me new pain in my womanhood and after that, I started vomiting.”

Dura looked like she had seen the devil himself. Her eyes pooped out and it seemed like she would faint. “What is it, mother?” Essence asked, now concerned. “Essence…you’re pregnant.”// 

Essence awoke to a comforting warmth. She had no idea where she was, but this time the ground felt very soft. A bed probably. Her first looks were greeted with a rather confusing sight. It seemed like the room she was in was basically a little library. The few places that weren’t filled with books, were covered by newspapers. She squeezed her eyes to read the headlines: “New Boy Wonder “, „The better Batman?” or “Batman and Robin bust drug ring”.   
Before she could read more, the door opened. She was greeted by an elderly man. He looked around 65, had only hair at the sides of his head, and one of the most flawless mustaches she had ever seen.

“Ah, it seemed you have awoken Miss…?” “Essence. If you want it simpler you can just call me E.” Something in the face of the butler changed, but Essence couldn’t for the life of god not say what. “Very well, Miss Essence. Now if you don’t mind, I would like to ask how you got here? Your injuries are quite terrifying, not to mention that Wayne Manor is a bit isolated.”

Shit. She thought that her appearance at the door of the manor was also part of the dream. Apparently, fate didn’t really like her. She wouldn’t lie though, simply because she had no reason to. “I originally intended to visit more normally, but fate is as often cruel. I and my family were attacked and I got obviously heavily injured. In my haste, I concentrated on the first place in my mind, and the next thing I remembered was that I was laying bleeding before the door to this manor.” She hadn’t lied. She only made her story more harmless. Like through the eyes of a little girl.

The butler didn’t seem to mind but still raised an eyebrow. “And may I ask why you wanted to visit?” “I am here to visit an old friend of mine. Jason Todd.” She responded. Of course, she knew who the butler was. Jason told her about him and how he thought that he was too good for this world. From what Essence could tell until now, he didn’t seem to disappoint.

“Ah, I fear that you might not have heard it, but Master Jason died in a tragic accident in Iraq He was a good kid.” “Oh, is that so. Then, I’m happy to inform you that Jason didn’t die in this accident. A friend of my mother found him and fixed him. He had strong amnesia if you ask why he didn’t show up sooner.”

The butler did his best to act surprised, but in the end, his eyes were more curios then shocked, which gave away that he knew this information already.

“Now, why would you expect him to be here, I certainly didn’t know that he was alive.” Essence had no interest in playing this game, but for the sake of peace, she did. “When he left, he told me he would search his family. Since Mister Wayne adopted him, I thought he would come here.”

“While he might not be here, I fear I must insist that you stay here. Because of your injuries of course.” Since Essence didn’t have a home anymore to go, she thought about the other options she had left. Stay here? Go and find Jason? Trying to summon the spirit of her mother? While the last two options were more comfortable to her, she knew that her injuries were heavy. She would probably bleed out before she could make it out of the manor.

“I fear I have no other choice. But could I have a bowl of water?” The bowl had the purpose of showing her what was going on. One of her first lessons was the art of observing. Just a small amount of water and some plants she had in her pocket, and the water would show her the person she wanted to see, that is if the person hadn’t any protection. She knew that Jason had some, but his teammates certainly didn’t. She would try to see the amazon, Artemis her name was if she recalled right. Maybe she could even send him a message.

While Essence thought about her plans, Alfred was already typing on the batcom. Many underestimated him, and while it was true that his glory days as a soldier were behind him, he hadn’t lost his senses. When the strange girl spoke her name and explained to him that she knew Jason was alive, it didn’t take long to figure out that this was the mother of Jason’s daughter. So, his first instinct was to tell Master Bruce, but then he decided otherwise. He typed in a special number only he knew and pressed the call button.

“Alf, is something wrong?” Of course, Jason’s first reaction would be to worry. He had told the butler to only use his number in an emergency, but Jason needed to be here as fast as possible. “While I can assure you that I am fine, you have a visitor here. Since she was almost bleeding out, I thought that would count as an emergency.” “Do you know who she is?” Jason asked. “While I never met her before, she said she knew you. She also said her name is Essence.”

Alfred didn’t hear a response immediately, but then the boy said: “I’m coming over. Oh yeah and Alf?” “Yes, my boy?” “Please don’t tell B immediately. Can’t handle his batglare right now.” With that, he ended the call.

Alfred stood in the kitchen and was confronted with a raff decision. Tell Master Wayne or not? While he respected Bruce, he also didn’t want to disappoint his favorite grandchild. But what if more help was required? And so, Alfred decided to make yet another call, but not to Master Bruce. Instead, he typed the number of Timothy Jackson Drake.

It had been two days since Bruce had found out about the All-Blades. While it was hard to find any connection between history and reality, he was called the world’s greatest detective for a reason. And so, on the third day, he found out about the All-Caste. A group of warrior monks who had sworn to protect the world from evil. While Bruce had never seen or heard anything about them, he was sure that these monks did their part too, otherwise, they wouldn’t have existed so long. 

One thing that was mentioned in an old book, was that the All-Caste hid in a giant cave, that was shrouded with an illusion. Bruce was sure that if these monks found out that there was such a book, they wouldn’t be too happy. 

The snow under Bruce’s shoe crunched, as he made his way further to the top of the mountain. He had spent the last 8 hours climbing and while he was sure that he could easily do a few more, he slowly became tired. If he didn’t find the illusion soon, he would need to go back, otherwise, he wouldn’t make it in time. He knew that he was lucky that there was no snowstorm right now, but he knew how quickly that could change. 

After yet another hour Bruce’s hope was almost lost. He didn’t want to give up now, but even he couldn’t survive a night up here. As he tried to remove his right cliff-hanger from the icy wall, he suddenly picked up a scent. It was weak, almost not there, but Bruce would always recognize this smell: Blood. He tried to get a better hold of the smell, but suddenly the ice wand began to crumble, and before Bruce could even scream, he fell down.  
Only to be cached by soft grass. As he looked up, he saw that he was in some kind of giant garden. The sight was stunning, and would even make Bruce yawn in aw if it weren’t for one thing: The completely destroyed corps before him. As the Batman looked up, he could make out even more bodies. Something terrible had happened here. Someone or something had destroyed the All-Caste.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so you might ask why the f*ck were I gone so long? Well, school just started and the to say my start was terrible would be an understatement. I already had three exams, and there will even be more. I want to continue this story, really, but I fear school might be more important right now. I will however try to continue, but please don't be disappointed when you don't hear from this story very often. In a month to two, I will have a break and I will try to write as much as possible then.
> 
> I hope you can understand, your Mothman


End file.
